NATO troops storm Karadzic house in Bosnia

Masked NATO troops backed by helicopters stormed the house of the UN war crimes tribunal's most wanted suspect Radovan Karadzic before dawn but did not find the Bosnian Serb wartime leader.

The troops from the NATO-led Stabilisation Force (SFOR) in Bosnia seized documents and a small number of firearms during the raid on the Karadzic home in his wartime stronghold of Pale, near Sarajevo.

SFOR said the raid was not aimed aimed at detaining Karadzic, who has been indicted by the UN tribunal for war crimes, but at smashing a smuggling ring.

The raid came after Washington on Sunday vetoed a six-month renewal of a UN police mission in Bosnia unless its troops are exempt from prosecution by the new world court -- a move that also cast doubt over the future of the 19,000-strong SFOR.

Arresting Karadzic "was not the aim of the operation," Scott Lundy, spokesman for the NATO-led Stabilisation Force (SFOR) in Bosnia, told AFP.

"Our focus was the illegal smuggling network. However ... information may also help us in our efforts to successfully detain Radovan Karadzic," Lundy told a press conference.

Karadzic has been indicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) for genocide and crimes against humanity during Bosnia's 1992-95 war -- notably for the siege of Sarajevo and the July 1995 massacre of several thousand Bosnian Muslims in the town of Srebrenica.

But despite its presence across Bosnia, SFOR has failed to capture either Karadzic or his fugitive army commander Ratko Mladic. SFOR tried in vain to seize Karadzic during two raids in February and March.

Amid concerns over security in the country if UN and NATO missions end, NATO said that SFOR would remain in the country despite the row.

Analysts said the raid underscored that the NATO mission set up under the 1995 peace accord that ended the Bosnian war was still going strong.

"It is a useful public relations move to show some sort of activity in a way which would be likely to impress good number of citizens of Bosnia, to demonstrate that SFOR is not abandoning them," Mark Wheeler of the International Crisis Group (ICG) told AFP.

"It wasn't a very serious move. Obviously they are not ready to make another real attempt to get Karadzic," he added.

SFOR said a caretaker who had been present during the raid was questioned and subsequently released.

But the caretaker, Rade Glavonjic, claimed he had been handcuffed and kept in an SFOR vehicle for almost two hours while they searched the house. He said one of the soldiers was French.

He told AFP that between 30 and 50 masked SFOR soldiers forced their way into the house, which was used by Karadzic and his family during the war, at around 3:20 am (0120 GMT), after Karadzic's son Sasha, had made a brief visit.

"First I heard helicopters and then two SFOR soldiers broke the gate. Then they handcuffed me and put me into an armoured vehicle parked in front of the house.

"They asked me if there were any weapons in the house. I told them there is none," Glavonjic said. "I told them they were not going to find the person they were looking for."

Karadzic's wife Ljiljana, who rushed to the scene, accused SFOR of intimidation.

"I do not know if they were looking for Radovan, but he was certainly not hiding under carpets or pictures," she told AFP.

"I think they did it to put pressure on the family and scare us," she said, adding that SFOR used explosives to enter some of the rooms.

Why are my tax payer dollars and my fellow citizens in the military forced to work for the UN Court??? Since when did my America become hypocritical and impose double standards. If the UN world court is wrong for my nation it is also wrong to impose it by force of arms on others as well!!

I am disgusted and ashamed of my country's actions in Bosnia.

One might as well ask.....why have 14 US soldiers died making Kosvo safe for the KLA ?

Clinton got us into bed with these Jihadist criminals.....

...tore the backs off [Christian] icons,...

Disgusting. Pathetic. Shameful.

It is a disgrace that NATO has nothing better to do than to damage Christian symbols -- at a time when the Christian world should be uniting against the Islamic menace.

Remember Hillary loves the radical Moslems. However, let us say Hillary and Bill were corrupt and got us and NATO into this mess; but now, we all know that Ben Laden and the Bosnian Moslims are in bed together, so why doesn't Bush put an end to this sham!

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.